Germany, SS. A Bergen-Belsen Entrance Pass and Handwritten Note from Irma Grese

(KZ-Bergen Belsen Papiere). A rare and unique lot of documents, including an entrance pass for Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Issued on 19 June 1945, approved on 23 June, and bearing a number of “145035”, it is issued to Corporal Gosling of the British Royal Army Service Corps (R.A.S.C.) and authorizes him to enter the now-liberated camp. It measures 190 mm (w) x 124 mm (h) and is pasted to a light blue paper stock backer. Tearing and creasing is evident, and the pass is in an overall very fine condition. It is accompanied by a small handwritten note from Irma Grese, a former camp guard, with a partially-legible inscription of “ICH MUß DICH… UND BIN ICH NOCH SO WEIT. DEINE KL. IRMCHEN” (“I MUST… AND I AM STILL SO FAR. YOUR LITTLE IRMCHEN”). The note measures 75 mm (w) x 25 mm (h) and is pasted to an additional piece of paper with a handwritten inscription of “IRMA GRESE: THE NOTORIOUS MURDERESS OF BELSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP”. It is in extremely fine condition.

Footnote: Irma Grese was born on 7 October 1923 in Wrechen, Germany. After leaving school in 1938 at the age of 15, she began working as an assistant nurse in a SS sanitorium. She joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) and enrolled in a SS female auxiliary training camp near Ravensbrück. She served as a guard at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Bergen-Belsen, attaining the rank of Rapportführerin, the second-highest possible rank for female concentration camp guards. During this period, Grese was noted for her brutality towards camp inmates, who she routinely beat and tortured. She was also responsible for selecting prisoners for death in the gas chambers. She was arrested by the British Army while still resident at Bergen-Belsen on 17 April 1945. After a nine week trial, she was convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged by the noted British executioner Albert Pierrepoint on 14 December 1945.